Phil Reisman: Washington Rock in Mamaroneck comes into its own, again

May 2, 2012

Washington Rock in Mamaroneck, circa 1900. / Submitted photo

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Apropos of nothing, I have a different sort of story to tell; it’s about a rock and the people who love it. Consider this a short time-out from the usual dreary news of the day.

The story goes that in 1901, a well-to-do Mamaroneck woman was on her way into the village when she happened to notice an outcropping at the entrance to Orienta Point, just off the Boston Post Road.

What she saw startled and delighted her. The rock had a face — George Washington’s face!

It was an uncanny portrait somehow stamped on a natural canvass of stone, about three feet high and two feet wide. All the distinct features were in place — the penetrating eyes, the prominent proboscis, and the tight lips that hid the painful dentures our first president was forced to wear.

The woman, whose identity is lost to history, told her friends about the rock. And they told their friends. Villagers hailed it as a “wonderful phenomenon.”

Before you knew it, the rock was celebrated in capital letters. They called it Washington Rock.

A New York City newspaper did a story about it, spreading its fame further. It was even photographed and put on picture postcards.

Nobody really knows how Washington Rock was formed. One theory has it that some years earlier the roadway needed widening which required blasting and, voila, the face emerged quite by chance through the artless force of TNT.

That’s probably how it happened. But these were simpler, more innocent times. For Mamaroneck at the turn of the century, gazing at Washington’s countenance was akin to capturing the image of Elvis in a cloud over Graceland.

Washington Rock was hailed as a patriotic affirmation of Mamaroneck’s proud past.

Indeed, it was lost on no one that Washington actually passed the hallowed spot in 1789 when he rode through Mamaroneck on his way to touring the New England states.

The village was also the site of the 1776 Battle of Heathcote Hill.

Furthermore, not far from Washington Rock, was the DeLancey House that was built on Heathcote Hill in 1792 and where the writer James Fenimore Cooper lived briefly as a DeLancey in-law. Among other classics, Cooper wrote “The Spy,” a Revolutionary War novel set in Mamaroneck.

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(The homestead was sold, shuttered and moved in 1902 down to the Boston Post Road, where it was converted to a rooming house and saloon. Later, part of it was used as a gas station. Today, the building is occupied by La Piccola Casa restaurant.)

Was the creation of Washington Rock merely an accident, or was it divine providence?

A local clergyman was so inspired by Washington Rock and the rich history it signified that he formed the Washington Rock Association. According to one newspaper account, the association decided to raise money to buy a bronze plaque with which to officially dedicate the rock on Oct. 21, 1904, the 128th anniversary of the Heathcote battle.

No plaque was ever bought, as far as I know. If it was bought and later installed, it must have disappeared because it is nowhere to be seen at Washington Rock today. The only sign there warns people to pick up after their dogs.

In any event, the novelty of the rock wore off.

Never totally forgotten, it faded in local memory, largely thanks to a thick veil of wild vegetation that crept across the rock wall and eventually covered the Founding Father’s likeness. For many years the name of a popular restaurant, the Washington Arms, which stood above the site, gave only the vaguest hint to the existence of the once-hallowed rock below.

The building is still there, and is occupied these days by the Liberty Montessori School.

Pushpa Jagoda, the owner and educational director of the school, knew about Washington Rock when she acquired the building 16 years ago, but was content to keep it concealed from view.

“We did not want it exposed,” she said. “It’s very easy to attract unnecessary attention so we kind of let it be covered with vines to protect it.”

Then Peter Fellows of the Mamaroneck Historical Society came along.

Because of his abiding interest in local history, Fellows know about the rock, too, and in 2010, he hunted it down, rediscovering it behind “a huge bush.”

Suddenly, it was like 1901 all over again.

Fellows approached Jagoda about clearing away the brush so that the rock could be seen just like in days of old. Though reluctant at first, she summoned the courage to give the go-ahead. After all, she thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful for a new generation of children to see and appreciate the rock?

When the wall was cleared of vines and Washington’s face came into view, Jagoda was just as delighted as the unidentified woman who first spotted Washington Rock a century ago.

“Oh my gosh, it is the most amazing thing,” she said. “I equate it to the Mona Lisa. I’m telling you, I’ve been to the Louvre and I’m fascinated with the way the eyes just follow in every direction you look.”

So this Saturday at 11 a.m., Washington Rock will be officially honored with a ceremony sponsored by the historical society, the Liberty school and another local landmark, good old Walter’s Hot Dogs.

Fellows is billing the event as a reintroduction to “an astonishing historical geological phenomenon.”